The developer of the downtown Railway Exchange Building is courting mobile payments startup Square as a tenant, he said Wednesday.

But Amos Harris cautioned that deal — and the whole redevelopment — are far from a sure thing...

The Business Journal reported in April that Square was looking for as much as 80,000 square feet of office space, either near its current offices in the Cortex innovation district or downtown...

Harris said his goal is to start construction in August.

Quite frankly, maybe Hudson Holdings (who I am assuming is still the developer) can’t start on the lower floors of the building, like Alterra and the Jefferson Arms. It would make the street level better and would reopen one of Downtown’s largest buildings. We need this to happen and if Square can be brought Downtown, it would break a glass ceiling as it would actually mean that a company would be moving to Downtown instead of leaving.

The local operations of AECOM, one of St. Louis’ largest engineering firms, plans to move from its office in the Highlands to downtown St. Louis.

The firm has signed a lease to occupy 17,000 square feet on the 20th floor of Bank of America Tower (100 N. Broadway), said David Kelpe of Cushman Wakefield, who helped broker the deal on behalf of the building owner, Hertz Investment Group in Woodland Hills, California.

The local operations of AECOM, one of St. Louis’ largest engineering firms, plans to move from its office in the Highlands to downtown St. Louis.

The firm has signed a lease to occupy 17,000 square feet on the 20th floor of Bank of America Tower (100 N. Broadway), said David Kelpe of Cushman Wakefield, who helped broker the deal on behalf of the building owner, Hertz Investment Group in Woodland Hills, California.

Square would be even bigger as it would occupy a currently abandoned building.

So troubled Hudson Holdings sold its Huntington Bank Building in Cleveland for $40M... seems to have made a bit of a windfall but not sure. Anyway, they have a lot of problems but who knows, maybe this will help them get RR/X done. W/o the involvement of local partners I wouldn't have any hope for them being able to redevelop the RR/X, but maybe there is a chance.

^They need to fix this building. So sad when all of this work is going on nearby. Cannon Design and some other firm has their name up on the building at street level. I’m starting to think Hudson Holdings is going to be a organization that screws us over on this project.

^They need to fix this building. So sad when all of this work is going on nearby. Cannon Design and some other firm has their name up on the building at street level. I’m starting to think Hudson Holdings is going to be a organization that screws us over on this project.

^They need to fix this building. So sad when all of this work is going on nearby. Cannon Design and some other firm has their name up on the building at street level. I’m starting to think Hudson Holdings is going to be a organization that screws us over on this project.

What do you mean, "screw us over"?

Sit on the building for years and years and don’t do anything to it. That’s what I mean by “screw us over”. The least they could do it restore it in phases so that it doesn’t sit there rotting.

^They need to fix this building. So sad when all of this work is going on nearby. Cannon Design and some other firm has their name up on the building at street level. I’m starting to think Hudson Holdings is going to be a organization that screws us over on this project.

What do you mean, "screw us over"?

Sit on the building for years and years and don’t do anything to it. That’s what I mean by “screw us over”. The least they could do it restore it in phases so that it doesn’t sit there rotting.

Considering Hudson purchased the building for around $20m, they're probably "screwing" themselves over more so than the locals. I think the actual concern should be changes to the historic tax credit at the state level that will probably keep this in limbo for the rest of the year.

It took two and a half months and $2 million to drain 9 million gallons of water and remove 5-6 tons of sludge from the basement of the Railway Exchange Building after a water main break last year.

That water main break also caused a sinkhole that claimed a gym-goer's car in downtown St. Louis, and it followed a similar flooding about six months earlier that also cost $2 million.

A year later, developers have moved past those issues and are courting potential commercial tenants. Local developers Amos Harris and Steve Stogel and Florida-based Hudson Holdings envision a mixed-use development that includes residential and offices, a project that could cost $300 million.

In its heyday, some 3,500 employees worked at the Railway Exchange Building, a 1.2 million-square-foot, 21-story building.

Harris said if they're successful, then the historic building will see the return of a blossoming community.

But first, he said, they need a commercial anchor tenant for 615 Olive St. They're aiming for a company in need of at least 60,000 square feet and preferably with an employee demographic that skews young.

That's why Square, when it was searching for 80,000 square feet of additional office space, was attractive. The financial services company ultimately decided to expand at its current office in Cortex.

Ceiling heights range from 10 1/2 feet to 15 feet, making the space ideal for creative-type companies, he said.

"The challenge is that the building is so big that it has to be a substantial commercial tenant, and we don’t have one yet," Harris said.

Anyone with some good speculative thoughts on an anchor tenant that could kick start Railway exchange? Would love to see some of the regions heavy weights bring a IT department downtown whether it be Enterprise rental, RGA, Centene.

Not surprising that Drury went after Scottrade's old HQ as I'm sure/assume most of its employees live in county/west county and would not support a move to downtown

Anyone with some good speculative thoughts on an anchor tenant that could kick start Railway exchange? Would love to see some of the regions heavy weights bring a IT department downtown whether it be Enterprise rental, RGA, Centene.

Not surprising that Drury went after Scottrade's old HQ as I'm sure/assume most of its employees live in county/west county and would not support a move to downtown

I work at Centene and Downtown is not on their mind at all. I spoke with the VP of IT recently and asked him about Centene considering opening up an office Downtown and he said that it would never happen. They want to expand their footprint in California and New York. Now, is his voice the end all be all? I'm not sure, but it's probably not a good thing.

Square is currently housed in Cortex, a Central West End tech hub that houses LaunchCode among other startups and companies. However, Square and Dorsey indicated they have their eyes set on downtown in the near future.

Dorsey says he asked Mayor Lyda Krewson in a private meeting, "If you were to point to an area that needs our help or where we could help the most, where in St. Louis city would it be?" Krewson's answer was downtown.

Two years ago this week, an eventful eight-month period began on a single block of downtown St. Louis — one highlighted by ruptured water mains spilling millions of gallons of water and a sinkhole swallowing a Toyota Camry when a sizable chunk of Sixth Street caved in.

The cavernous void that engulfed the car — 20 feet deep and 8 to 10 feet across — raised questions about why there wasn't soil and other material there to support the roadway overhead, as one would expect.

While some speculative bystanders chalked it up at the time as a freak accident or fluke of geology, others thought the crater was triggered by erosion from the water main that broke just around the corner, months before.

“I know where a lot of the dirt was,” Amos Harris, a developer for the neighboring Railway Exchange Building, told the Post-Dispatch when the sinkhole emerged in June 2017. “It was in our basement."

That assessment is echoed in a lawsuit filed by the building's owners in St. Louis Circuit Court last week.

The suit, which also includes the City of St. Louis as a plaintiff, places the blame on Ameren through one of the electric utility's subcontractors, INTREN. It alleges that they "negligently caused the rupture" of a water main while working in the area in November 2016, setting in motion a destructive chain of events that have cost millions for the property owner and the city.

The construction fencing has been removed. I wonder if Hudson Holdings is calling it quits over the constant lawsuits and overdue debts. They are nearly impossible to get a hold of. If they did give up, I hope someone else comes along who has the money and ability to do a project of this magnitude.